Fox News host Sean Hannity said his sources are telling him the most “explosive” finding in the Justice Department review on the origins of the Russia investigation has to do with illegal intelligence-gathering on American citizens.
Hannity first mentioned this during his show Thursday evening while speaking to the Hill’s John Solomon, who said DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s soon-to-be-released report on alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses will find “a lot more wrong than right” and will be “difficult” for former top FBI officials such as James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Peter Strzok.
Hannity said there is some discrepancy between what he and Solomon expect in the watchdog report and the Justice Department inquiry being run by Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham, who are examining the behavior of the FBI and Justice Department for possible wrongdoing.
“I want to know who’s going to be held responsible. Because If I lie to a court, and I premeditated a fraud on the court, I have a funny feeling there’s not a lawyer in the country that is going to save my sorry ass from being sent to jail. I’m just guessing, but maybe — I’m Irish, I’m pessimistic,” he said.
“Let me ask you this. So, we both agree on those. You think there might be an IG report alone on leaking?” Hannity added, to which Solomon agreed.
“And I’m expecting, from what my sources are telling me, Durham, Barr, and everybody else, to get to the origins of what is a counterintelligence investigation, which Andy McCarthy rightly points out in his new book, would mean Obama knew because the president has to sign off on it but that origins of this counterintelligence investigation, what did Obama know, when did he know it?” Hannity said.
He was referring to former U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy, who is promoting his new book, Ball of Collusion, and Thursday on Fox & Friends accused Obama of improperly using counterintelligence powers and law enforcement to assist Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“But more importantly,” Hannity continued, “What will Barr, Durham, come out with in terms of — let’s say the Barr-Durham report? … Or whatever that ends up being. Because I hear that is where the single most explosive bit of information, outsourcing of illegal intelligence-gathering for the sake of circumventing American laws, took place, and a lot of people would be found in violation of spying on Americans against the law.”
Solomon warned that he did not want to get ahead of the Justice Department’s findings, but did say that the Barr and Durham review will provide “a much broader view” of alleged spy tactics than what the IG report will show because they are not limited to what went on in the Justice Department.
Hannity later noted how there is “a lot of activity” in Europe tied to these investigative efforts, including the 16-hour interview conducted with British ex-spy Christopher Steele earlier this summer. He also suggested the United Kingdom, Italy, and Australia were roped into the inquiry.
Steele’s anti-Trump dossier, which was funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants to surveil one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, an American citizen who was never charged with any wrongdoing.
Republicans have argued the dossier’s Democratic benefactors and its author’s anti-Trump bias were left out of the FISA applications and have demanded accountability. Democrats countered that the FBI acted appropriately, saying the Justice Department and the FBI met the rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis for probable cause.
